German Court: ISPs Must Hand Over File Sharer Info

itwbennett writes "The German Federal Court of Justice has ruled that ISPs have to turn over to rights-holders the names and addresses of illegal file sharers, but only 'if a judge rules that the file sharer indeed infringed on copyright,' said the court's spokeswoman, Dietlind Weinland. The ruling overturns two previous rulings by regional courts and is significant because the violation doesn't have to happen on a commercial scale, but applies whenever 'it is possible to know who was using an IP address at the time of the infringement,' the court said."

Comments

But you can't know if someone infringed copyright

[Anonymous Coward]

But you can't know if someone infringed copyright unless you know all of the circumstances of the copying, including the identities involved.

There are many ways a person may not have been infringing copyright (statutory, fair-use, license, ownership, etc.) even if they were definitely involved in copying.

If you must prove that someone infringed copyright without knowing who they are first, it is an impossible standard.

Of course, I expect that this merely technical truth will be disregarded entirely.